If you are a web retailer looking to expand your offerings without any additional outlay for inventory, you truly must take a look at the drop shipping company model as a way to do this. The drop shipping service design is one where an entity (normally the maker or wholesaler) makes a choice to permit merchants to buy in amounts of as little as one product at a time - and more permits the merchant to specific a shipping address for each order. Instead of being able to use simply a couple of "finest selling" products, you can now use lots of more products.
Let's have a look at exactly what the drop shipping organisation model is and how it works.
The simplest way to think about a drop ship company model is to believe about your own retail web based or mail order organisation. The only distinction to the customer is that in the one instance, the item is shipped directly from your place and in the other circumstances, the item is delivered from another place.
Here is how a drop ship program works mechanically.
You develop a relationship with a drop ship business and integrate their offerings into your item brochure.
You get an order from your consumer.
You then log onto your account at the drop ship company and location the order with them - providing your consumer's address as the shipping address for the item.
When the package was delivered, the drop ship company then loads and ships the product and updates their order system to show you.
That truly is the entire procedure. Your overall time financial investment to deal with the drop ship company is taking the time to enter orders into their order processing system. You do not get involved in any packing or shipping.
Elements of an excellent drop ship program
Drop ship business differ extensively in exactly what they offer and how they run their service. Things you want to find in a drop ship company include the following:
You wish to find a company that constantly has their stock in stock. There is nothing more irritating to your client than to place an order for something just to be informed it is back purchased for 3 weeks. If the drop ship business does not preserve a current stock of all its offerings all the time, you want to make certain they have a real time upgraded stock list and that your catalog can be integrated with this stock list to mark the appropriate status of each item.
You want a business that ships fast. You don't desire your consumers waiting permanently for their products so be sure that the drop ship business ships all orders quickly. As a corollary, you wish to get your orders to them rapidly so that there is no extra hold-up in shipping due to the fact that you took a couple of days to notify them of an order.
You want to make certain the drop ship business ensures delivery of the order. If a consumer contacts you to report the order was never provided, you want to be specific another one gets shipped to them at no charge to you or the consumer. It may be that the drop ship business will require you to pay an insurance coverage charge for this warranty or it may be that they do not. In either case, make sure you have a 100% shipment assurance pledge from them.
You wish to be sure that the company offers an easy to use order positioning and status verification system. You need to have the ability to go online to position your orders and verify when they have been delivered.
You wish to make sure that the business does not consist of any of their own literature/catalogs with the order and that PrintProfits reviews they do not preserve a mailing list of your clients. You strive for your consumers and you should take advantage of the expenditure of getting those consumers.
You want to ensure the rates structure allows you to benefit. Lots of drop ship companies will provide you discounts that are nearly as good as their wholesale rates and some will even match their tier one wholesale rates.
So is the drop ship organisation model the right way for you to broaden your organisation?
When deciding if a drop ship business model is ideal for your retail service, there are lots of elements to examine. Many of them have been talked about in the bullet points above however there are two other aspects to take a look at in making this decision.
Is this degree of separation between you and your customers OK? When you deliver straight to your clients, you have the chance to include inserts with the order - brochures, sale notifications, etc. When drop shipping, you will typically lose this capability.
When you deliver by means of this method, you will pay shipping charges and in some instances a per item/order drop ship charge. You need to consider that if you carry products from multiple companies, you will be paying shipping charges to several business if a client orders products that should be fulfilled from multiple places.
By examining all the components above, you will be able to decide if the drop ship business design is right for your retail operation. As long as you put in the time to find and work with trustworthy business, it is a terrific method to add to your item brochure and bottom line profit with no threat on your part. If you are considering broadening your company operations this year, you ought to give this model a major appearance before you invest thousands in inventory that you need to sit and save on up until it moves.
The only difference to the customer is that in the one circumstances, the product is shipped directly from your area and in the other circumstances, the item is shipped from another area.
Your overall time investment to work with the drop ship company is taking the time to enter orders into their order processing system. You don't want your customers waiting permanently for their products so be sure that the drop ship business ships all orders quickly. You want to be sure the drop ship company ensures shipment of the order. When you ship via this approach, you will pay shipping charges and in some circumstances a per item/order drop ship fee.